Council junkets to go ahead despite criticism

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council announced on Monday that it would not postpone overseas junkets for its members despite sharp criticism by many who view the trips as a waste of public money on the part of councillors lacking all sense of crisis.

Council speaker Edy Waluyo said funds for the trips had been set aside in the 2001 city budget.

"We will also undertake similar trips next year," he said.

Some Rp 11.9 billion has been allocated for councillors' travel this year and the city has already disbursed Rp 6.2 billion of this with Rp 4 billion going on overseas trips and the remaining Rp 2.2 billion on domestic trips.

Edy argued that overseas travel was aimed at broadening the horizons of the council's 85 members who came from various political parties and had diverse social and educational backgrounds.

Besides broadening their horizons and expanding their knowledge, he said the trips could also encourage the councillors to provide positive inputs for the city administration.

"The councillors go abroad in order to conduct comparative studies on various aspects related to urban development. These are not just pleasure trips for them," Edy asserted.

He said that a number of councillors from the council's Commission E on social welfare who visited Mexico City last month had studied museum management there.

Meanwhile, councillors from Commission C on budgetary and financial affairs were currently in Los Angeles studying local taxes there, particularly environmental and advertising taxes, he said.

Some councillors from commission B on economic affairs would travel to France next month to study how to handle street vendors, he added.

Council officials had earlier said that a number of other councillors, also from commission B, planned to go to Argentina later this year to study the management of municipal enterprises.

Edy claimed that the councillors' trips had nothing to do with funds allocated to assist the underprivileged.

"The funds for the trips have been allocated as have the funds for the underprivileged," he remarked.

He said the city would disburse a total of Rp 50 billion (US$4.5 million) to 25 disadvantaged subdistricts here.

These funds were drawn from the Rp 600 billion, out of the Rp 7.5 trillion 2001 City Budget, that had been allocated for developing facilities for the poor, such as community health centers.

In October of last year, some city officials and 16 councillors participated in related trips to Australia, Japan and South Africa.

The trips, which were financed out of the 2000 city budget and by city-owned PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, aroused a storm of controversy. Three councillors reportedly received travel allowances of Rp 52 million each even though they later canceled their travel plans. (jun)